DictionaryAI

belonging

bi-LAWNG-ing/bɪˈlɔŋɪŋ/UKbi-LONG-ing/bɪˈlɒŋɪŋ/

Pluralbelongings

4 meanings of belonging

Practice

  1. 1
    nouncountableplural
    A physical thing that someone owns, chiefly used in the plural for the things a person has.

    The silver locket was her most treasured belonging, a gift from her grandmother.

    Travelers should keep their belongings close in crowded stations.

    Similarpossession, thing

    Note

    Here the plural is the normal shape, and it has been since Shakespeare wrote "thy belongings" in Measure for Measure. Steinbeck sets the word beside its synonym in The Grapes of Wrath (1939): the tenant families sift their belongings and pick over their possessions for the journey west. The singular is rarer but sound. Truman Capote's In Cold Blood (1966) gives a girl's "third most valued belonging," a gold watch.

  2. 2
    noununcountable
    The feeling of fitting in and being accepted as part of a group or place.

    Like a puzzle piece that finally clicks into the right spot.

    Volunteering at the shelter gave him a renewed sense of belonging.

    The workplace fostered belonging by celebrating each team member's contributions.

    Similaracceptance, inclusion

    Oppositealienation, exclusion

    Note

    The abstract noun built from belong + -ing stays uncountable. People speak of a feeling of belonging or a need for belonging, with no article and no plural. Add an -s and the word changes meaning entirely, to what a person owns. A sense of belonging and a sense of one's belongings are two very different things.

  3. 3
    verb
    Present participle and gerund of belong.

    Belonging to several committees kept her schedule completely full.

    She values belonging to a tight-knit professional community.

    Note

    The verb form keeps the verb's habit of taking to: belonging to several committees, belonging to a group. In mathematics it means belonging to a set, the relation written ∈. That to-phrase is the easiest way to tell it from the feeling of belonging, a noun that usually stands alone. Middle English spelled the word belonginge, belanging or belangand.

Less common meaning

  1. 4
    noundatedcountable or uncountableplural
    A person's family, relatives, and household, considered together.
    As soon as the principal personages were seated, the verandah of the house was filled silently by the muffled-up forms of Lakamba’s female belongings.
    1896, Joseph Conrad, An Outcast of the Islands
    When Lady Kew said Sic volo, sic jubeo [Thus I will, thus I command], I promise you few persons of her ladyship’s belongings stopped, before they did her biddings, to ask her reasons.
    1854, Arthur Pendennis [pseudonym; William Makepeace Thackeray], The Newcomes

    Similarfamily, relatives, kin

    Note

    Here the word means a person's people, not their things, and it appears only in the plural. Thackeray (1854) writes of "her ladyship's belongings," and Conrad's An Outcast of the Islands (1896) has "Lakamba's female belongings" filling a verandah. The use is dated, and a modern reader will hear personal possessions first. For kin and household today, family or relatives is the safer choice.

belonging is a form of belong

belong, verb: To be a part of something, or to be the property of a particular person. Full entry

Forms
belongbelongs he/she/itbelonging -ing formbelonged past tense, past participle
Spelling
belong → belonging: add -ing

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–2, 4

Formed from the verb "belong" combined with the suffix "-ing".

Meaning 3

From Middle English "belonginge" (also "belanging", "belangand"), equivalent to "belong" plus the suffix "-ing".